While hiding out in the wild, Blake and Sango go to the river to search for food! But who would they find, but a certain tan-skinned girl with a fishing pole and a straw hat, ready to help! This is bad! If this is who we know it is, then Blake and Sango better do some quick thinking before the timeline implodes into a paradox and we all die!

The Elimination Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 4 has started! Make sure to get those votes in, we've only got a few so far! You can vote for up to 5 girls, so make sure your favorites have a chance to shine!

Nominated: Alcea, Ange, Ayame, Caelia, Callie, Chloe, Cynthia, Dakota, Donoma, Elaina, Gabrielle, Joyce, Kate, Maddi, Misato, Nikita, Rui, Sango, Sylvia, Vic

KedharS: You have no idea the adventure that's in store for them.

Tambry96bj: We'll definitely meet some of the seniors, but I don't think we'll be able to meet all of them, there just isn't room.

Hyphenman: Marion is quite tricky. Because you can never be sure if she's stupid or clever, which makes it hard to know how to act around her.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1342

"Howdy!" The green-haired girl grinned, skipping over to them. "That was quite a fall! You okay?" Her blue eyes were wide with concern.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Sango mumbled, picking herself up. She looked at the girl with a haunted expression on her face. Her eyes slid over to Blake, who looked shocked himself.

"You folks here to fish?" The girl sniffed, leaning in even closer. No respect for personal space, this one. Something Sango and Blake knew very well, if she was who they thought she was.

"Uh… k-kinda?" Sango stammered, repeatedly signaling to Blake with her eyes for help. She had no idea what she was supposed to do.

All he could offer her was a shrug. It wasn't like this was something he had any experience with himself. The two were in a tight position.

And the tan first-year in front of them didn't seem to notice that they were struggling. She happily strutted past them and cast her fishing pole out across the river.

Blake and Sango glanced at each other again. Their hunger had been forgotten with the shock of the girl in front of them.

"That… that's Marion, right?" Blake whispered to Sango.

She swallowed and nodded. "It's her… yeah, it's definitely her," Sango confirmed, turning pale. She couldn't believe it. But it made sense, right? Marion was a senior just like Ayame. So if Ayame was here, it stood to reason Marion was here as well.

"We should keep our heads down," Blake continued, slowly pulling Sango away from the riverbank. "It's like with Ayame. If we spend too much time around her, then-"

"What're you guys talking about?"

Marion popped up behind them again, startling them both.

"M-Marion!" Sango gasped. "You, uh… you're done fishing already?"

"Yuppers!" Marion chirped, flashing a peace sign. "See, fishing's great and all, but you know what's even better? Fishing with friends! I wanted to see if you guys had any fishing… hey, wait!"

She scrunched up her face suspiciously. "You just called me Marion?"

Sango went pale. How could she have been so stupid? She'd been so flustered she just responded to the fishing enthusiast like she always did, but in this timeline Marion didn't remember her! She practically slapped her forehead in frustration.

"I, uh…"

"Did I tell you guys my name?" Marion stroked her chin, narrowing her eyes at the two of them. Sango sank a little in the mud. They were screwed.

"Yes," Blake said automatically. "Yes, you did."

Marion blinked. "Well, okay then! If you say so! Ahaha…!"

Sango slumped over. She couldn't believe that had actually worked.

Thank you for being so gullible, Marion! She silently thought, clenching her fist triumphantly. Regardless of the timeline, Marion was still an idiot.

"So I told you guys my name, but what about yours?" Marion asked, glancing between the two of them curiously. "Friends should always introduce themselves, don't you agree?"

She left out the part where she had failed to introduce herself because she'd been too preoccupied with fishing. Neither of them pointed that out.

"Oh, um, yeah," Sango stammered. "My name is San…"

Her voice trailed off as she realized that giving Marion her real name might not be the best idea.

"San?" Marion squinted, confused.

"San… san… *cough* sand! In my throat! Sorry about that!" Sango lied, faking a cough. "Must have gotten in there when I fell earlier."

"Oh no!" Marion gasped. "That's just terrible."

"Hack, hack, it's fine now," Sango said, clearing up her throat. "But anyway, I'm, um…" Fake name, think of a fake name…

Sango was terrible at this. She was too fundamentally honest. Cynthia could have rattled off half a dozen aliases without even blinking, but Sango struggled to come up with even one.

"She's Claire," Blake said, gesturing to Sango before she took too long and got suspicious. "And my name is… Rei."

Sango didn't miss the way he winced when he said that. It was just a made-up name, right?

"Claire and Rei… nice to meetcha!" Marion grinned. She smiled briefly at Blake, then turned her attention to Sango. Sango began to get a little uncomfortable with the way Marion was staring so intently at her.

"Um… is everything okay?" She asked awkwardly. If Marion suspected she was lying about her identity, things could get really complicated.

"Ah, no, it's nothing!" Marion laughed. "I was just thinking something about you feels really familiar, that's all!"

"Um… okay?" Sango didn't know what to make of that.

"It's nothing, it's nothing," Marion repeated, waving her hand. "Call it a bit of intuition, perhaps… it feels like maybe you're someone really important to me!"

She scratched her cheek sheepishly and actually blushed a little. Sango was shocked she could have that sort of reaction about anything besides fishing.

"That's not weird, is it?" She asked.

Sango remember Marion's smiling face, her Marion, the girl several years older than the one standing in front of her, and yet unquestionably the same person.

She smiled. "No, that's not weird at all," she said, shaking her head. "Maybe we were meant to become friends after all."

The way Marion's face lit up when Sango said that was brilliant to see. Her smile was brighter than the morning sun.

"Sen-sational!" Marion cheered. "A friend! I actually made a friend! A human friend! Whoopie! I knew it would happen sooner or later!"

"Congratulations," Blake applauded, resisting the urge to burst out laughing. Sango shot him a dirty look, but he couldn't help himself. She'd given him so much crap for his reaction when he first saw Ayame, but now Sango had gotten roped into something even more serious.

"So what shall we do now, new friend?" Marion asked excitedly. "Where is your fishing pole so we can fish together?"

"Um… yeah… about that…" Sango glanced at Blake. "Look, um… we don't exactly have our fishing poles with us right now…"

"Well that's fine! We can go back to your rooms then, and get them!" Marion smiled.

Blake and Sango flinched. Their eyes met, and then they glanced away from one another.

"Um… well…"

"What is it?" Marion asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"Oh no! You lost your ID cards?!" Marion gasped. The three of them were headed back to their makeshift campsite.

"Yeah, you see, um, we're both in Pikachu House, you know?" Sango lied. "And wouldn't you know it? We both couldn't find our ID cards! So without any roommates to let us in, well…"

She gestured at the camping equipment left out.

Marion gasped.

"Oh, that's horrible!" She wailed. "…But wait, couldn't you just call campus safety? They would let you back into your rooms, no?"

Rrrgh. That's right. Blake and Sango glanced at each other again, and telepathically came up with another cover story.

"Well, you see," Blake scratched his head sheepishly, "the thing is…"

"The thing is, Rei here is on the outs with his family!" Sango said quickly. "They cut him off financially, because he likes a bit too much of the… glug glug. So he can't afford to get a new ID card from the school right now."

She held up her hand to mime a drink and gulped it down.

Blake stared at her in shock. "Seriously?" He hissed, stepping on her foot. "You had to make me out to be an alcoholic?"

"It was the first thing I could come up with!" Sango hissed back.

"That's not good!" Marion cried. Her eyes turned frantic. "If you drink hot chocolate that fast, you'll burn your tongue!"

Blake and Sango stared at her like she was an idiot.

"Yes. Hot chocolate. That's what that was." Blake's dry tone could have caught on fire with a simple ember attack. Sango had to resist the urge to laugh, which didn't go unnoticed by him.

"Meanwhile, Claire here has some issues of her own," Blake said, shaking his head. Sango gave him a warning look, but he ignored her. "You see… her family is very poor. In order to afford the tuition to go to the Pokemon Academy, she had to go from door to door, selling matches." He wiped a fake tear from her eye. "She just can't afford to lose her ID like this!"

"What are you doing?!" Sango whisper-screamed, elbowing him in the side. "Since when am I the Little Match Girl!?"

"It's working isn't it?!" Blake snapped.

Marion was blubbering on the ground.

"That'sh the shaddesht shtory I eber heaaaaard!" She wailed, hugging Sango tightly. "I'b sowwie Claire, habing to sweep outshide lige dish!"

"…You get used to it," Sango numbly replied, staring murder at Blake over Marion's shoulder.

"But anyway, the point is, well, we don't know where our IDs are, and we can't really go get new ones from the school, so… it's a bit of a problem," Blake said, trying to both play up and downplay the issue as much as possible. "See… we only ate berries last night, and we haven't even gotten breakfast, and we're starving…"

Sango realized where Blake was going with this. Marion was such a good person, it would be child's play to convince her to buy them breakfast.

I don't like taking advantage of her good nature… but the only alternative is telling her the truth. And if we do that, who knows what might happen to the timeline? Needless to say, Marion had not mentioned anything about meeting Sango in the past. Which meant she had to remain in the dark for as long as they were here.

She didn't feel good about it, but she would do it if she had to.

And Marion was happy to accommodate.

"Not a problem!" She chirped. "I can pay for a breakfast or two, don't worry!" She took out her ID card and flashed it to them.

"Really?" Blake asked. He smiled bashfully. "No… that's okay. You don't have to do that for us, it's too much to ask."

He says that, when he tried to manipulate her into making the offer in the first place? Sango shook her head incredulously. This guy… if not for his good nature he'd make a pretty terrifying playboy, huh? She wanted to be upset about that, but that would involve casting some blame on herself so she refrained. She'd fallen for him too.

Fortunately, Marion was immune to his charms. Though not immune from her own good nature. "Nonsense!" She scoffed, patting him on the shoulder. "I fish up my own food all the time anyway, so I've got a lot of money saved up! Let's get going!"

The walk to the Snorlax Commons was agonizing. Marion kept bombarding them with questions, stuff about what classes they were taking and what majors they wanted to enter. It took everything the two of them had to evade her prying words.

Thankfully, she seemed to be out of questions by the time they made it to the dining hall, and began to gorge themselves.

It felt like it had been days since their last good meal. Which for Sango meant a pretty big mountain of food was being devoured, to the amazement of the onlookers.

"Sang- err, Claire!" Blake hissed, being careful not to use her real name. "What do you think you're doing? The point is to not draw attention to ourselves!"

"I'm hungry!" Sango snapped through mouthfuls of food. She swallowed and then gave him a dirty look. "By the way, what were you thinking, naming me after your friend?! Claire? Seriously? That's the best you could come up with?!"

"It had to be a name she wouldn't recognize!" Blake whispered back. "What if I called you Cynthia and she put the pieces together?"

"You couldn't just call my 'Susan' or something? You had to use an actual person's name?" Sango demanded.

Blake shrugged. What else was he supposed to do? That was the only name he could think of that would work in the heat of the moment.

Sango sighed. "Well, fine, what about Rei? How'd you come up with that one, then?" Again, Blake's expression shadowed over. She realized that maybe she shouldn't have asked that question to him after all.

"That's…" Blake looked pained as he tried to explain.

"So what're you two whispering about?" Marion leaned forward with her head propped up in her hands, her eyes shining curiously.

Blake and Sango nearly fell off the bench they were so caught off-guard.

"Err, nothing, it's nothing," Blake said, shaking his head frantically.

"Yeah, nothing at all!" Sango nodded.

Marion didn't buy it. She stared suspiciously at the two of them. "Don't tell me… you two…"

Oh crap! Sango winced.

She figured it out?! Blake immediately went into panic mode.

"…Are dating?!" Her eyes were glistening with excitement. "Aww, how sweet! I knew that campsite looked super cozy!"

"NO!" They blurted out simultaneously, their faces turning red.

"Me, w-with this guy?!" Sango exclaimed, her finger shaking frantically. "Absolutely not! I could never date a guy like Bla- Rei!"

"Y-Yeah, me neither!" Blake nodded rapidly. "San- Claire here, she's just not my type! She's really more of a friend, right?"

"Yup, totally," Sango agreed. "The best of friends!"

"Exactly," Blake confirmed.

Marion stared back and forth between the two of them, thoughtfully stroking her chin. "You guys sure? Because I'm really getting some vibes from the two of you…"

"No vibes! None! Nope!" Sango said, shaking her head.

"That's right, we're just friends," Blake repeated.

Internally, they were both screaming.

Why would she ask that?! How the hell is this moron always so perceptive in the absolute worst ways?! Sango wanted to smash her head into the brick wall of the patio. Don't get me started on the fact that things between me and Blake are already awkward enough as it is!

Blake was similarly flummoxed by Marion's assertion. Apologizing to Sango is already going to be hard, why the hell do you have to make it even harder by planting the idea that I like her in her head?! I already know how she feels about me, which just makes it even worse! This is a complete pain in the ass, damn it!

Marion shrugged. "Well, okay then, if you guys say so. Anyway! Back to what we were discussing before!"

"Wh-What was that?" Sango asked, feeling a little nauseous. There had been so many topics from Marion they'd deflected in the last hour, and she wasn't sure she had the energy left to tackle them again.

"Fishing, of course!" She chirped.

Ah. Right. I almost forgot it was Marion for a second. Just because her hair is longer that doesn't mean she's any less of a fishing nut.

Sango sighed in relief.

"Yeah, so, about fishing… see, we don't have any fishing poles, so-"

"Ah, that doesn't matter!" Marion laughed, waving her hand dismissively. "I've got tons of spares back in my room. My roommate is always complaining about them, says they take up too much closet space, but hey! It's MY closet too, right? She'd just waste that on dumb clothes or makeup or whatever, instead of important stuff!"

Sango nodded. Yup. This is Marion alright.

"So shall we go? I'll be happy to introduce you two!" Marion stood up from her seat. "They're great girls, and super friendly!"

The way she described them didn't sound friendly, but then Marion was friends with actual Sharpedo that ate people so maybe she had different standards.

Blake and Sango put their trays away and thanked Marion for the food once again, and then they all headed to her dorm. Fittingly, she was in Squirtle House.

"Be careful," Marion warned them. "If she's doing her makeup right now, she's going to be in a really bad mood."

In spite of what she just said, Marion burst into the room with a big smile on her face, practically kicking in the door.

"I'm back!" She chirped. "And I brought some guests!"

"Aargh! Marion, you jerk!" The blonde girl sitting at the desk exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "Look what you did! I smeared my nail polish!"

She waved her hand accusingly in Marion's face, showing where her turquoise-blue nail polish had streaked from the nail onto her skin. The blonde girl had her hair cut in a fetching pixie cut, but her beautiful face was anything but dainty, twisted up in a rage as her blue eyes glared accusingly at the other girl.

"It's not enough for you to barge in and out at all hours of the night for your precious 'night fishing' when I need my beauty sleep, you have to interrupt me when I'm doing my nails too? What's the matter with you?!"

"Whoops, sorry Liv!" Marion laughed sheepishly. "I was just so excited to introduce you two to my new friends!"

"And another thing, I told you don't call me 'Liv'!" The irate blonde exclaimed. "My name is 'Olivia'! How would you like it if I called you 'Mari'? Or if I called Ayame 'Aya'?"

Marion shrugged. "…Wouldn't care?"

"Rrrrgh!" If the blonde girl had longer hair, she would have pulled it out. Instead, she turned and glared at the two students hanging awkwardly in the doorway.

"You two?" She scoffed. "What do you want?"

"Ah!" Blake and Sango looked past the pompous girl to spot the dark-haired girl who'd run into them before sitting on the bottom bunk. Ayame! Her eyes widened in recognition behind her bangs.

"It's you!" Blake exclaimed. Ayame quickly hid under her pillow.

"Ayame, you know these two?" Marion asked, surprised.

"Will someone PLEASE tell me what is going on here?!" Olivia demanded, stomping her foot in frustration.

Ah, if only we knew. As we can see, this chapter has sown the seeds that will one day sprout into a great gulf of animosity between our little Mermaid and Empress. Freshmen roommates makes way too much sense, doesn't it? Even as time passes, some things never change, and Marion is certainly one of those things. And apparently so is Olivia.